After an impassioned early morning speech at the United Nations, and the grave solemnity of Ground Zero, Francis was welcomed in song and laughter on a warmly emotional visit to a Catholic school in New York’s East Harlem neighborhood Friday afternoon.
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Francis will spend the last two of his six days in the U.S.in Philadelphia as the star attraction at the World Meeting of Families, a conference for more than 18,000 people from around the world that has been underway as the pope traveled to Washington and New York.
Ruth Smart dressed in all white to see the pope’s motorcade pass through Central Park.
The respiratory therapist from Brooklyn was part of a crowd of 80,000 who greeted the pontiff with a thunderous roar as his Jeep popemobile passed by.
Among those in the audience for Francis’ speech was Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousefzai, the young Pakistani education campaigner who was shot and gravely wounded by the Taliban.
After praying before the waterfall pools that mark the spot where the twin towers once stood, Francis met with relatives of the 3,000 victims whose names are inscribed on the water’s edge.
Mass at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday.
Among those on hand was Monica Iken-Murphy, whose husband, bond trader Michael Patrick Iken, died in one of the towers.
“I couldn’t be prouder to share this memorial and museum with him”.
Mr Lombardi saif it was clear that “the Pope, personally, does not like a lot of security around him”, but it was up to any host country to determine what it needed to do to keep him safe.
Pope Francis has urged a more humane global system that respects the poor and the environment, as he criticised the economic order, in an address to the United Nations. “My daughter is right now at MSG for the Mass, and this is my granddaughter, generation number four, to see the pope”. At one point he stopped and appeared to bless some children. It was the pope’s first visit to the city, where the longtime hum of the machines of commerce and prosperity has brought the very excesses he has spent his papacy pushing against.
At the school he spoke to students in Spanish, looked at their projects and told them school can become a second home.
Hastings said the pope’s message crossed religious lines. Many had to settle for catching a glimpse of him tooling around by motorcade in his black Fiat 500.
The crowd in the gym included about 150 immigrants and refugees, some of them in the US illegally.
As in his historic speech to the US Congress the day before, Francis cited the legacy of Martin Luther King. “It is lovely to have dreams and to be able to fight for them”.
The crowds swelled around Central Park during a break in the papal schedule. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics plan to hold separate events, including an event for gay parents and their children, on Saturday, as they advocate for broader acceptance in the church.
The main group representing American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, had been the subject of a seven-year Vatican investigation over accusations that it had overemphasized social justice work and pushed “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith”. For the procession in Central Park, ticketholders were barred from bringing backpacks and other items.
People wait for the arrival of Pope Francis at the September 11… As many as 1 million people are expected for the final Mass on Sunday.
Although this isn’t the first time that a Pope has been captured on an album, the rock influences are nonetheless surprising. The General Assembly recently agreed to allow the U.N.’s two observer states, the Holy See and Palestine, to fly their flags alongside those of the 193 member states.
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Although his United Nations remarks on the environment and the economy carried a message many liberals welcomed, Francis also affirmed church doctrine on abortion and sexuality.
